Sci-fi can do it all: Whether you're looking for a piece of explosion-heavy escapism, an existential meditation on what it means to be human, or a genre-bending head-scratcher, there's a little something for everyone. But let's face it...there are plenty of other-worldly duds out there, too, and when it comes to streaming libraries, it can be difficult to find the diamonds in the rough. That's why EW sifted through Amazon Prime Video to bring you its very best sci-fi offerings, from classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind to recent favorites like Asteroid City.
Here are the best sci-fi movies on Amazon Prime Video, as of August 2024.
Asteroid City (2023)
![Scarlett Johansson in 'Asteroid City'](https://ew.com/thmb/DuFtEvS40YeGFNQqXkxELZcmrMg=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/asteroid-city-060923-1-24c5de8273fb44348192560a3e47a7ef.jpg)
Wes Anderson doubles down on style, artifice, and metatextual layers with this entertaining (yet profound) confection. The film simultaneously tracks a play about a group of young stargazers and their parents who converge for a convention in the desert town of Asteroid City, as well as the writing of that play by a famed playwright. Within the reality of the play, a UFO descends upon the junior stargazers, causing fascination (and panic) within the community.
While science fiction is more of a side dish than the whole meal here, Anderson's thematic ambitions with Asteroid City also relate quite well to storytelling within the genre. As EW's critic writes of Anderson's thesis, "To find the truth in art, you have to give yourself over to the artifice of the dream." —Kevin Jacobsen
Where to watch Asteroid City: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
![Richard Dreyfuss in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'](https://ew.com/thmb/2V-bBmSFMUIm0F8zBrB_BvkCuWY=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/1977-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-060424-08711622d146409fb9a15443d7c672e0.jpg)
Courtesy Everett Collection
Sure, it may have been slightly overshadowed by a certain other sci-fi film released in 1977. Yet, Close Encounters of the Third Kind has rightfully lasted as a thoughtful examination of human curiosity concerning the great unknown of space, directed by one of our most humanistic directors, Steven Spielberg. The film follows electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) as he experiences an encounter with a UFO. He and a single mother named Jillian (Melinda Dillon), who also had a close encounter, experience mysterious visions, while scientists investigate a series of strange phenomena that may be related. —K.J.
Where to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, François Truffaut
Coherence (2013)
![Emily Foxler in 'Coherence'](https://ew.com/thmb/MAIEKSBAwI4dAi9RrgucGH_YhdI=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Coherence-062223-fc7964fbb64d4df8b569cd6ee5a6410a.jpg)
When old friends reunite for a dinner party in a movie, you know something is about to go terribly awry. In Coherence, that "something" is the arrival of a close-passing comet — and the discovery of a house full of doppelgängers having an identical dinner party down the street. The plot is full of quantum-related twists and turns, but the film is grounded by the talented cast, which includes Buffy's Nicholas Brendon in a fun self-referential role as a former TV star.
The production is just as quirky as the premise: Director James Ward Byrkit wanted to make a low-budget film that was so stripped down, it didn't even have a script. Instead, he invited a bunch of actor friends to his living room, gave them basic character motivations, and let them improvise through the entire thing. The result, while occasionally messy, is thoroughly original. —Janey Tracey
Where to watch Coherence: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: James Ward Byrkit
Cast: Emily Foxler, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Lorene Scafaria
The Dead Zone (1983)
![Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen in 'The Dead Zone'](https://ew.com/thmb/mARWX8BRvQAlgelKMIegqhOfNlI=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/the-dead-zone-020224-d438ae39ac3e4591bb1786a1a00ce01f.jpg)
Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
What exactly would you do if you suddenly had the power of psychic visions? In this Stephen King adaptation, schoolteacher Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) must face such deliberation when he awakens from a coma with the ability to know a person's past and future just by touching them. After foreseeing such harrowing events as a kid drowning and a man who would become president ordering a nuclear strike on the USSR, Johnny comes to realize that he may also have the power to alter the future.
The Dead Zone presents a world not unlike our own, where every action has consequences, in a gripping film enhanced by its sci-fi premise rather than being weighed down by it. —K.J.
Where to watch The Dead Zone: Amazon Prime Video
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen
Face/Off (1997)
![Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in 'Face/Off'](https://ew.com/thmb/fkfvivV4aeAVrSVcxTnmefA1U58=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Face-Off-Nicolas-Cage-John-Travolta-011224-84fdef4d3577486697c9d19b809b1edd.jpg)
Paramount Pictures/Courtesy: Everett Collection
The premise of Face/Off is so silly — and literal — that it's almost a miracle it worked as well as it did. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage square off in one of the most epic duels of '90s cinema as FBI Agent Sean Archer and terrorist Castor Troy, respectively. When Troy goes into a coma before he can reveal the location of a bomb set to go off in L.A. in a few days, his archenemy Archer undergoes a dangerous face transplant, replacing his face with Troy's as a means of uncovering the location. But things get complicated when Troy unexpectedly awakens and demands the same facial treatment. As EW's critic praises, "Face/Off makes bad movies look worse and makes the making of good movies look like the most thrilling work in the world." —K.J.
Where to watch Face/Off: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: John Woo
Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Alessandro Nivola, Colm Feore
I Think We're Alone Now (2018)
![Peter Dinklage in 'I Think We're Alone Now'](https://ew.com/thmb/5NrFDl2JcN-yaCMdGN-I3_Agy-0=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/I-Think-Were-Alone-Now-041823-46471a809466405c96cf2f3781a1c04c.jpg)
In this low-budget indie drama, Peter Dinklage stars as a man who assumes he's alone in his small town after a sudden apocalyptic event in which a large portion of the population suddenly disappears. He eventually meets a fellow survivor (Elle Fanning), with whom he shares a reluctant bond, and later learns that they're not, in fact, alone.
Directed and shot by Reed Morano (an Emmy winner for directing the pilot of The Handmaid's Tale), I Think We're Alone Now focuses on the human response to cataclysmic events more so than the event itself. "I like the postapocalyptic genre, but it's been done a million times, and I was looking for something a little bit weird, or just a little bit different tonally," Morano told EW in 2018. "I saw this opportunity to tell a postapocalyptic story that breaks a lot of the conventions of storytelling in that genre." —K.J.
Where to watch I Think We're Alone Now: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Reed Morano
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning, Paul Giamatti, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Interstellar (2014)
![INTERSTELLAR (2014) Matthew McConaughey](https://ew.com/thmb/oUYTeRUEVz4t8nQg6AByhKTz3H4=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/fl-18247rv2.jpeg-2000-73d228169a114fe08bec678769f95668.jpg)
After turning a film as cerebral as Inception into an Oscar-winning hit, Christopher Nolan indulged in his sci-fi-loving sensibilities even further with this space epic. Matthew McConaughey delivers one of his most achingly sincere performances as Cooper, a NASA pilot living on a ravaged Earth who embarks on a last-hope mission to an exoplanet that may be capable of sustaining life. What he finds on his trip becomes a mind-bending (and time-bending) testament to humanity's fight for survival, its sense of resilience, and its profound effect on future generations.
While the film refuses to hold your hand in exploring such heady themes, those who give themselves over to Nolan's vision will be bowled over by its advanced storytelling on such a grand scale. —K.J.
Where to watch Interstellar: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
![Dana Wynter, Carolyn Jones, Kevin McCarthy, and King Donovan in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'](https://ew.com/thmb/zDdvhzXxRxNcwvwIa_YhwRLFP_E=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1956-080924-7efd8adf22e94cc7a7dbb19ccc5c0dbb.jpg)
Silver Screen Collection/Getty
While the '70s adaptation starring Donald Sutherland may be more well-known now, this '50s classic still hits today. The sci-fi thriller, based on Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers, tells of a California town in which alien pods capable of replicating humans have suddenly popped up, sucking all life out of their earthling subjects and effectively replacing them. Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) tries to find a way to stop the incoming invasion in its tracks, but finds this is far easier said than done. "Watching McCarthy turn from a rational man of science into a raving lunatic while those around him become husks of their former selves is a scary, over-the-top treat," writes EW's critic. "The power of the film is primal." —K.J.
Where to watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A+ (read the review)
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willes, Ralph Dumke
The Vast of Night (2020)
![Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick in 'The Vast of Night'](https://ew.com/thmb/9ZV4z8ex7pDI9KBj6wTmMuesQJw=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/TVONStill002_rgb-a7111b3250f14cb6aa8e263b6b845781.jpg)
This underrated sci-fi indie centers on a pair of teenage friends living in 1950s New Mexico who investigate a cryptic audio signal that suddenly interrupts a radio program. Putting the pieces together, they unravel a conspiracy that may suggest proof of alien life. With a budget of just $700,000, director Andrew Patterson pulls off a number of stunning shots, transporting us to a specific time and place. As EW wrote following the film's success, "Just the setting and veneer of the film — it's framed as an episode of a Twilight Zone-esque anthology TV series — should be enough for you to guess more or less where it's headed." —K.J.
Where to watch The Vast of Night: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Andrew Patterson
Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz
The War of the Worlds (1953)
![Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, and Ivan Lebedeff in 'The War of the Worlds'](https://ew.com/thmb/4LLDc21EPFdbS505tMCnq29IjAM=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/war-of-the-worlds-112123-6e1cec23f82c4a73a0920233bab9a955.jpg)
Courtesy Everett Collection
H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds was one of the first-ever alien invasion tales, and Orson Welles' 1938 CBS radio adaptation famously caused a panic when listeners believed a Martian attack was actually taking place. But when it comes to films based on Wells' work, the 1953 version still reigns supreme. The story, which follows an atomic scientist instead of a 19th-century writer, is updated to tap into Cold War anxieties, but in the end, just as in the novel, the invasion is presented as a natural disaster largely outside of human control.
Although the special effects are no longer as groundbreaking as they were in the '50s, they're still incredibly entertaining, especially the manta ray-shaped alien war machines. —J.T.
Where to watch The War of the Worlds: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Byron Haskin
Cast: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson